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Vol. II, No. 6-7 



February-March, 1917 



University of Virginia Record 
Extension Series 




THE Lfffl&Wy OF 

CONGRESS 
SERIAL RiluORD 

NOV b ,,,j 



THE JEWISH CHAUTAUQUA SOCIETY 
AND THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 



Published by the University 



[Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Postoffice at Charlottesville, Va.) 



BULLETINS OF THE BUREAU OF EXTENSION OF THE 

UNIVERSITY INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING 

PUBLICATIONS. 



1. Rural Life Bulletin — The Country Church 

2. Virginia High School Quarterly — Published in November, February, May and 

August 

3. Virginia High School Literary and Athletic League — Debate — Part I. Organiza- 

tion, Parliamentary Forms and Rules. Part II. Arguments and References 

4. Virginia High School Literary and Athletic League — Debate — Woman's Suffrage 

5. Virginia High School Literary and Athletic League — Debate — Good Roads 

6. Extension Series, Vol. I, No. 2 — University Extension Lectures 

7. Extension Series, Vol. I, No. 3 — Compulsory Education 

8. Extension Series, Vol. I, No. 4 — Religious Activities and Advantages at the Uni- 

versity of Virginia 

9. Extension Series, Vol. I, No. S — Program for the use of Sunday Schools and 

Churches in the observance of Country Church Day 

10. Extension Series, Vol. I, No. 6— Announcement of the Curry Memorial School 

of Education 

11. Extension Scries, Vol. I, No. 7 — Program of the Ninth Annual Rural Life Con- 

ference, University of Virginia Summer School, July 17 to 21, 1916 

12. Extension Series, Vol. II, No. 1 — Official Syllabus of Bible Study for High 

School Pupils 

13. Extension Series, Vol. II, No. 2 — The Virginia High School and Athletic League 

14. Extension Series, Vol. II, No. 3 — A Bibliography of Educational Surveys and 

Tests 

15. Extension Series, Vol. II, No. 4 — Principles Involved in the Teaching of Hand- 

writing 

16. Extension Series, Vol. II, No. 5— Summer School of Music; Special Announcement. 

Copies of these bulletins will be sent to any one upon application to 

BUREAU OF EXTENSION, 

Charles G. Maphis, Chairman 

University, Virginia 



D c of D. 
.PP. 19 1018 



V 






The Jewish Chautauqua Society and the 
University of Virginia* 

By Chas. G. Maphis, 
Professor of Secondary Education, University of Virginia. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

In looking - over the program of this meeting and noting that 
all of the speakers except myself are Jews, and observing the 
same fact about my audience, I am reminded of a story which 
Superintendent Joyner of North Carolina told in an address ot 
welcome to the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary 
Schools recently held at Durham, North Carolina. 

He related that when Durham was a very small village some 
twenty years ago, General Carr, who lived at Durham but was 
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of North 
Carolina at Chapel Hill, employed as his butler an old colored 
man who for a number of years had been janitor of one of the 
college buildings at the University. 

When the old man's year of service was up General Carr 
was much surprised to have him come and report that he was 
going to leave and go back to his old job as janitor at Chapel 
Hill, and said to him, "Uncle John, haven't I paid you well and 
treated you properly?" "Yes, sah," was the reply, "you has 
treated me well, but I'se gwine back. I likes you very well, 
but I has done concluded that Durham's no place for a literary 
man." 

For not a single moment have I had a feeling that I am out of 
place here. The cordial invitation to come, the hearty and gen- 
uine reception which I have received since arriving, and the 
reassuring words of your chairman, all combine to make me 
feel that I am not out of place. 

I desire, Mr. Chairman, to express my appreciation of the 



*An address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Society held at 
New Orleans, December 27, 1916. 



124 The; Jewish Chautauqua Society 

honor conferred upon me in the invitation to address you and 
my genuine pleasure in bringing to you greetings from the Uni- 
versity of Virginia in whose Summer Session three of your dis- 
tinguished members have lectured so acceptably. 

In 1914 your lecturer was Rabbi Abram Simon, Head of the 
Washington Hebrew Congregation, and member of your Cor- 
respondence School. 

Dr. Simon, by his fine social qualities, his geniality, his broad- 
mindedness, his scholarship, his cleverness and his oratorical 
powers, quickly became popular, not only amongst the students 
of the Summer School but with members of the University 
community, the faculty, and the protestant clergymen of the city. 

He lectured on the History of Jewish Education and Culture 
in the Biblical Era, Jewish Educators in the Middle Ages, the 
Renaissance of Jewish Education, and Modern Jewish Problems 
in Education. 

His lectures grew in popularity from day to day, and it is not 
too extravagant praise to say that, although we have had many 
eminent lecturers, we have had no other whose lectures have 
been more popular and have created a more genuine interest. 

In 1914, Rabbi Harry W. Ettelson, of Hartford, Connect- 
icut, was the lecturer, his subject being Literary and Moral In- 
terpretation of the Psalms. He was a worthy successor to Dr. 
Simon. He was an enthusiastic student of literature, afire with 
literary appreciation. He, himself, being the author of some 
excellent translations of your brilliant Yiddish Poet, Morris 
Rosenfeld. 

In 1915, we had the pleasure and honor of having with us 
Dr. Max L. Margolis — a man of different type from those who 
had preceded him ; quiet, reserved, dignified, erudite, essen- 
tially a teacher. This Semitic scholar gave a series of lectures 
on the story of the Origin and Transmission of the Hebrew 
Scriptures which were at once interesting, instructive and il- 
luminating. During our Rural Life Conference, which that year 
was devoted to the rural church and was attended principally 
by protestant ministers, a lecture each day by Dr. Margolis 
formed part of the program. 



The Jewish Chautauqua Society 125 

I heard many words of commendation from them and fre- 
quent expressions of appreciation. 

Last year, to our great delight, Dr. Simon returned to us. His 
stay was all too brief, which created in us a feeling of disap- 
pointment akin to the short-lived pleasure of the old colored 
man in Charlottesville on Saturday before Christmas. 

Virginia became a prohibition State on November first un- 
der a rather rigid law. Provision is made, however, that 
each adult who is a head of a family, and proves that he 
has not in the past twelve months been intoxicated, may have 
shipped to him a maximum of one quart of whiskey a month. 
This old darkey had waited to get his allotment so that he might 
have a real Christmas. He got it from the express office and 
was carrying it along the street when the bottle dropped upon 
the pavement and broke, wasting the precious liquid. To a 
passer-by, the old negro looked up in great disappointment and 
said mournfully, "Good Lord, Marse John, Christmas 'done come 
and gone." 

I think it was Dr. Simon himself who charged, in an address 
before your Society, "we are not doing anything to bring the 
non-Jewish world to recognize our truths and principles." Cer- 
tainly this charge could not be wholly true after such a series 
of lectures as those which we have had at the University of 
Virginia Summer School. No more effective means of giving 
proper publicity to your tenets could in my opinion be employed. 
The Carnegie Peace Foundation has adopted a similar plan and 
now supplies lecturers on International Conciliation and Polity. 

If, "to foster your historic consciousness and to disseminate 
your history and literature" is your task, as one of your num- 
ber has expressed it, then no better means, in my judgment, can 
be employed, and we are looking forward to a continuation of 
the custom with pleasure and hope. 

As Thomas Jefferson looked to universal education for the 
amelioration of all of our political ills, so the Jews, if they 
expect the large number of immigrants to become a blessing to 
the people of this country of whom they are to become an in- 
tegral part, must provide instruction for them. Modern Jewish 
education is synonymous with moral and religious education and 



126 The Jewish Chautauqua Society 

therein it lays emphasis where Jefferson would have had it 
placed. The strongest side of Jefferson's educational philosophy 
was its bearing upon good morals and social progress. "Edu- 
cation," he said, "generates habits of application, of order, and 
the love of virtue; and controls by the force of habit, any innate 
obliquities in our moral organization." 

The Semitic Nations. 

Kemp, in his History of Education, says, "One important 
chapter in the history of education has not yet been written. A 
very interesting one it no doubt would be. It is the history of 
the old Semitic Kingdoms of Babylon and Assyria. 

"More directly interesting than the old Semitic peoples are 
the Hebrews. The development of Hebrew Nationality and the 
maintenance of Hebrew racial characteristics and eminence are 
the miracles of history. 

"The Hebrew religion Avas the one definitely monotheistic and 
strictly ethical religion of antiquity, and through Christianity it 
has given inspiration and character to nearly all that is noblest 
and purest in the highest types of modern civilization." 

From the Encyclopaedia of Education I gather the following 
brief statement of- the early history of Jewish Education. 

The Jews, long before any other nation of antiquity, formu- 
lated an educational ideal and expressed the aim of education 
in terms of character-formation, based on religious and ethical 
principles. The product of a sound education was to be a God- 
fearing man for, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wis- 
dom." 

Schools were unknown, for it was felt that the education of 
the children was the business of the family. 

The Book of Proverbs is the expression of the educational 
ideals of the time and was typical of the literature of the an- 
cient period. According to Josephus, it is interesting to note 
that about 30 A. D. the High Priest, Joshua ben Gamla, passed 
a law providing for the establishment of elementary schools, 
with compulsory attendance from the age of six. By this law 
each community had to provide a teacher for every twenty-five 



The Jewish Chautauqua Society 127 

children, with an assistant if the number rose to forty, and an- 
other teacher if the number reached fifty. 

One of the most interesting illustrations of the influence of 
education on the survival of a nation is that presented by the 
survival of the academies established after the destruction of 
the temple. An interesting institution connected with the Baby- 
lonian academies was the Kallah, a general assembly meeting 
twice each year, at the end of summer and winter, not unlike the 
modern chautauquas or institutes, of which this meeting is an 
example. The theory of education in the nine centuries follow- 
ing the Old Testament period is found in the Talmud — Educa- 
tion, meaning as always, religions education, was regarded as the 
business of life. 

Note carefully the following statement of aims, compare them 
with Jefferson's and see how modern they seem. The ignorant 
man was to suffer civil disfranchisement and social ostracism, 
for the ignorant man cannot be religious while "whoso knows 
the Bible, Mishnah, and morals will not sin easily." Hence a 
school was as much a requisite in every community as a syna- 
gogue, and to live where there was no school was forbidden. 
The teacher was to be married, not young, patient, and wholly 
devoted to the needs of his pupils. The reverence with which 
teachers were regarded is reflected in their titles, "Lights of 
Israel," "Princes of the People," "Pillars of Israel," etc. 

In the middle ages, it became a matter of distinction for 
wealthy men to maintain academies at their own expense, as 
it was also to possess a library and to be willing to lend books. 
The spread of knowledge by lending books willingly is repeatedly 
recommended as an act of piety. I make these quotations in a 
measure to refute the charge which is made that our histories 
of Education make no reference to Jewish Education. The 
problem of purely Jewish education is becoming more and more 
complex in proportion as the facilities for secular education in- 
crease. The decay of the home, the early economic independ- 
ence, the weakened hold of the synagogue, the so-called attrac- 
tions of the street, contain in them the causes of many a tragedy. 
The Congregational School attempts now, I believe, to offset 



128 The; Jewish Chautauqua Society 

these adverse influences, but with varying success — leaders and 
teachers seem to be lacking. 

Your Chautauqua lectures are a means of acquainting the Non- 
Jewish world with the truths and principles of Judaism. I have 
referred to the lectures and their popularity at the University 
of Virginia. 

In my brief reading and study of this subject I have learned 
much which I did not know about Judaism, and much which I 
knew has been emphasized in a new light. 

I have learned, for example, that there are good Jews and 
bad Jews; some irreligious Jews, but more devout Jews; cultured 
Jews and vulgar Jews ; liberal, generous Jews and greedy, grasp- 
ing Jews — just as all these classes exist amongst the Gentiles. 
I have learned, too, that it is not fair to judge the worst of 
one class of people by the best of another, as many of us are 
prone to do. I have also learned that human nature is much the 
same in all ages, and that we are likely to render the harshest 
judgment against people and things about which we know least, 
just as Shakespeare, who probably never saw a Jew, portrayed his 
Shylock as a type which has been accepted ever since. I have 
learned that you have your Shylocks in trade, your Fagins and 
Svengalis in crime, and your Isaacs of York ; you also have your 
Rebekas and your Daniel Derondas ; your Mary Antins Heines, 
Metchnikofs and Zangwills ; you have .also your Steinthals, Spi- 
nozas, Bergsons, in Philosophy ; your Mendehlsohns, Aleyer- 
heers, Rubensteins, Benjamins, in music ; your DTsraelis, 
Strausses, Brandeises, in statesmanship ; your Max Hardens, 
Wises, Gompers, as Social Leaders ; your Blochs, in Psychology ; 
your Pulitzers, and Seligmans as Publicists ; your Rothschilds, 
Schiffs and Seligmans in Finance ; your Belascos, Frohmans, 
Bernhardts, Erlangers, in Theatricals. It is, therefore, not just 
to nationalize the traits of a Shylock or a Fagin without at the 
same time nationalizing the nobler characters. 

Mark Twain, who once wrote some sneering things about Jews, 
became better informed, repented, and afterwards wrote the fol- 
lowing: "If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per 
cent, of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of 
Stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew 



ERRATA 

Page 128, line 23, there should be a comma after "Antins". 
line 24, "Metchnikof" should be Metchnikoff. 
line 26, "Benjamins" should immediately precede "D'Israelis". 
line 28, "Medicine" should be substituted for "Psychology". 



The Jewish Chautauqua Society 129 

ought hardly to be heard of ; but he is heard of, has always 
been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other 
people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of 
proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to 
the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, 
finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of 
proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a 
marvellous fight in this world, in all the ages ; and has done it 
with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, 
and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the 
Persian arose, filled the planet with sound and splendour, then 
faded to dreamstuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman 
followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone ; other people 
have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it 
burned out, and they sit in twilight now or have vanished. The 
Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always 
was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weaken- 
ings of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his 
alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew ; 
all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of 
his immortality?" 

I have learned that while long oppression, limited fields of 
opportunity, and other causes, for which the Christians are as 
much responsible as the Jews, have developed certain undesir- 
able traits in some individuals and classes of the sect, yet there 
are outstanding characteristics of excellence which render them 
insignificant in comparison ; such as, longevity due to a more 
rigid observance of the sanitary code handed down from Levit- 
icus, which is the basis of practically all of our modern laws of 
sanitation and preventive medicine. There is consequently a 
low death rate amongst them, alcholism and certain other 
vices are less common, they are law-abiding people, they 
do not occupy almshouses, seldom divorce, are very domestic; 
no other race has given such careful home training to its 
children from the earliest time to the present, they are un- 
known to the Potter's Field; and above all the Jew is religious. 
One important lesson, above all, Jewish education has taught 
us ; namely, that the most important element in all education is 



130 The Jewish Chautauqua Society 

moral discipline. Jewish education down to comparatively re- 
cent times meant education in general both religious and sec- 
ular. Today it means purely religious education. Judaism in- 
sists on social righteousness and social control. 

Jefferson's University salutes the representatives of your 
Society assembled here, and bids you God speed in your 
great task of disseminating knowledge and carrying truth 
to those who, without your efforts, would remain ignorant. 
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people," said he, 
"no other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation 
of freedom and happiness." "I look to the diffusion of light 
and education as the resource most to be relied on for amelio- 
rating the condition, promoting the virtue, and advancing the 
happiness of man." 

If I understand your aims aright, Jefferson has expressed them 
aptly and accurately in the phrases "diffusion of light," "amelio- 
rating the condition," "promoting the virtue," and "advancing 
the happiness." Your Rabbis but state the same truth when they 
say "Upon three pillars rests the world — Truth, Justice and 
Peace." 

Your Chautauqua Society I interpret to be a Jewish Cultural 
Agency, the object of which is to further in a large sense the 
work of Jewish education by lectures, by correspondence, by 
study circles, and by all the means employed by a well organized 
University Extension Department, — which is the organized and 
systematic effort to bring some of the advantages for culture 
and instruction within the University to people who are not en- 
rolled as resident students. A university should not only dis- 
cover truth, but should disseminate truth. Your Society is an 
agency for the dissemination of the knowledge which its lead- 
ers and teachers have discovered or otherwise obtained from 
organized institutions of learning, by carrying it out to men 
and women everywhere and applying it in creative helpfulness 
— thus holding open the door of educational hope to thousands 
who cannot attend regular school or college sessions. In- 
formation alone leads to intelligent thinking and sane acting. 
Opinions to be valuable must be based on facts. When they are 
not, they are- vicious and harmful. 



The Jewish Chautauqua Society 131 

But I have departed from a consideration of Jefferson and the 
University to state briefly my interpretation of your aims. 

On the fagade of one of the new main buildings in the quad- 
rangle at the University is this quotation from the Gospel of St. 
John, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." 

The University has always been distinguished for its emphasis 
of truth and honor and to these another attribute is being added 
— service. In a letter just sent out to all of her alumni, President 
Alderman uses these words : "The University of Virginia is the 
first deliberate gift of democratic education to a nation. Her 
three-fold destiny lies before her like a clear and shining faith — 
to conserve truth, to advance knowledge, to draw near to her 
people in sympathy and guidance." 

Jefferson, in writing to Mr. Roscoe said, "This institution will 
be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here 
we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor 
to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it." 

On the western slope of Monticello Mountain overlooking the 
University, there stands a small and modest obelisk on which is 
inscribed 

"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson 

Author of 

The Declaration of American Independence; 

The Statute of Virginia for 

Religious Freedom; 

And 

Father of the University of Virginia." 

This epitaph, as is well known, was written by himself and 
recites the things for which he most wished to be remembered. 
The achievements there recorded justly entitle him to be called 
the "great apostle of freedom," for when Jefferson penned that 
immortal document, the Declaration of American Independence, 
he prepared the way to set all Americans politically free; when 
he wrote and had enacted into law the statute of Virginia for 
religious freedom, he established the principle which set all 
Americans religiously free ; and when he founded the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, he established an institution to set men intel- 
lectually free, and established the principle, not before universally 



132 The; Jewish Chautauqua Society 

conceded, of intellectual liberty. I frequently wonder whether 
we today appreciate fully the spirit and the idealism and hu- 
mility of the man who, although an extreme individualist, was 
almost inspired with the desire for what we now term so- 
cial service, and who exemplified so fully the cardinal prin- 
ciple of democracy and religion — the brotherhood of man. 

If it should be given to any of you, my friends, as it was given 
to him, to be a distinguished lawyer, a member of the Virginia 
Legislature and the Continental Congress, Governor of Virginia, 
Minister to France, Secretary of State, President of the United 
States, and to have in addition every public honor that a grate- 
ful people could bestow upon you, and you were permitted to 
dictate your own epitaph, would you not be tempted at least to 
record some mention of them? 

In my judgment the greatest moment of his great life was 
when he wrote those words and the noblest element of his char- 
acter are found in this epitaph. 

Sir Christopher Wren built as his monument St. Paul's Cathe- 
dral ; the monarchs of Egypt sought to perpetuate their memory 
in the Pyramids; Napoleon, his, by attempting to establish an 
empire ; modern philanthropists seek theirs by endowing insti- 
tutions ; but Jefferson built a greater than any of them and more 
enduring by establishing the principle of freedom and liberty 
in this continent and by laying the foundations of democracy 
for the world. 

He was a man of broad vision, not a visionary, but a construc- 
tive idealist. Monticello was his Parnassus from whose heights 
he caught the broad vision he possessed. When, for ex- 
ample, he thought of freedom it was not the liberty of the 
individual, but of the whole nation ; when he founded a uni- 
versity it was a complete institution such as had not 
been seen in this country before. Yale and Harvard had 
started from small beginnings and grew but the University 
sprung full-fledged, a complete institution from the brain of one 
man, like Minerva from the brain of Jove — so broad was his 
vision. Similarly when he thought of education it resulted in a 
complete system which is the model of the present day. He was 
so far ahead of his time in his thinking and conception of things 



The Jewish Chautauqua Society 133 

that he was bitterly criticised and greatly misunderstood by his 
contemporaries, and even in this good time we have scarcely 
caught up with him on many questions. 

Other men had dreamed of liberty and talked of freedom. 
This country was peopled by men who came to escape some form 
of oppression, but it was left to Jefferson to put into concrete 
form' the thoughts of the world and the dreams of the oppressed 
in the Declaration of Independence. This, as he tells us himself 
in his letters, was not a declaration of new principles but a state- 
ment which embodied all that had been written and thought and 
said on this subject. Locke and Milton before him had given 
utterance to many of the principles enunciated in the Declara- 
tion. Henry had fired the hearts of his country by his oratory 
in stating them, other men had disclosed them, and his task was 
to take them all and frame them into a political creed for the 
whole people— a great piece of constructive statesmanship. 

Other men had written on the subject of education and had 
ideas concerning it, but it was left for him to construct a sys- 
tem, put it into operation, and to give to its function a new mean- 
ing — making it the foundationstone of a free democratic govern- 
ment. His supreme dream was a stable, republican form of 
government, and he did not lay aside his public duties until the 
principles of such a government seemed to him firmly established 
in this country. 

Other men had fought and prayed for religious freedom, others 
had left their native land and had come to a new wilderness coun- 
try in order that they might "worship God according to the dic- 
tates of their own conscience," only themselves to become bit- 
terly intolerant of those who differed with them ; but it was left 
to Jefferson to establish by constructive legislation the. principle 
of religious freedom, which opened the door of hope and oppor- 
tunity for the first time to the Jew, along with every other class 
of mankind. 

While his vision was broad, and he seemed to realize much 
which he sought to accomplish, we may be sure he dreamed of 
world-wide freedom and democracy and that the truth of Brown- 
ing's lines 

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, 
Or what's a heaven for?" / 



V 



p^ 



134 The; Jewish Chautauqua Society 

was verified in his experience. I have no doubt he is now dwell- 
ing on some celestial Monticello and, paraphrasing his own 
words to Adams, with him, "looking down from another world 
on the glorious achievements of man, which add to the joys 
even of heaven." 

I have dwelt at length, doubtless too long, on this phase of 
my subject, but I have done so because I believe that, on account 
of the very principles of his which I have tried to emphasize, 
no man of this or any other country has made a stronger appeal 
to the Jew. Oppressed, persecuted and scattered as the Jews 
have been in every other nation, they cannot but hail as a de- 
liverer and benefactor the American Moses who led them into 
this "promised land." 

In a statement prepared in 1895 directly after the fire which 
destroyed part of the University buildings, in an effort to raise 
$20,000 to erect a memorial to Thomas Jefferson, from the He- 
brews of the United States, I find the following: "In this land 
of liberty the gloom which for centuries overshadowed the de- 
velopment of the Peculiar People, has found no place. In these 
United States the Jew enjoys every privilege of citizenship — 
being in every relation of life which our government takes cog- 
nizance, the equal of any other citizen. Here he possesses un- 
impaired the right of life, property, liberty and the pursuit oi 
happiness, according to the dictates of his own conscience. 

"Great as are these blessings per se, their value is enhanced 
by the fact that they are not accorded as a matter of grace by 
a higher power, but are declared and recognized as inherent in 
all men. This Government has no claim upon the Jews' grat- 
itude for favors bestowed, but it can never exhaust his loyalty 
and love for the justice extended, not to him exceptionally, but 
to all men, without excepting him. 

"To the great Apostle of Liberty, who, as has been shown, 
declared and secured the unalienable rights upon which Amer- 
ican civilization is based, all lovers of freedom owe an immeas- 
urable debt ; but since the Jews have profited more by his 
achievements than perhaps any other people, the obligation rests 
most heavily upon them. 

"From political, religious and social degradation in Europe, 



The Jewish Chautauqua Society 135 

they stepped here into an atmosphere of equality and freedom, 
where no Governmental fetter impeded the fullest exercise of 
their energies. That they have improved the opportunities pre- 
sented is attested by their achievements on every hand." 

For the paper from which this quotation is taken, together 
with a number of other interesting documents consisting of let- 
ters and other papers, I am indebted to Hon. Felix H. Levy of 
New York, a distinguished alumnus of the University, well 
known of course to you on account of his great ability dis- 
played as Special Counsel to the Department of Justice and 
Special Assistant to the Attorney-General of the United States. 

The documents were the result of a suggestion made by Mr. 
Leo M. Levi, a prominent member of your Society who was 
graduated at the University of Virginia in 1876 and who prac- 
ticed law in Galveston, Texas, until 1900, when he removed to 
New York City where he died in 1904 after an all too brief 
but brilliant career, at the age of forty-nine years. Mr. Levi 
was a lawyer of distinguished ability and occupied a foremost 
position at the bar of the South ; as well as an orator and scholar 
of eminence. In 1896 he wrote to Mr. Felix H. Levy a 
letter suggesting that the efforts which were then being made by 
the alumni of the University throughout the United States to 
raise funds to restore the destroyed buildings should be availed 
of by the Jews of the United States as a suitable opportunity to 
express the admiration of the Jews of America for Thomas 
Jefferson as the Apostle of Religious Liberty in America. He 
requested Mr. Levy to obtain the cooperation of some of the 
important Jewish citizens of New York City, notably Hon. 
Oscar S. Straus (then recently United States Minister to Tur- 
key, and since then a member of the Cabinet of President Roose- 
velt and more recently Progressive candidate for Governor of 
the State of New York, and now Chairman of the Public Serv- 
vice Commission of the State of New York) and Mr. Jacob H. 
Schiff, one of the leading Jews of the United States today. 
As a basis fOr this suggestion Mr. Levy prepared a very able 
exposition of some phases of Jefferson's life, particularly an 
interesting presentation of the services rendered by Jefferson 
in procuring the adoption of the Statute of Virginia for Re- 



136 The Jewish Chautauqua Society 

ligious Liberty, a part of which I have previously quoted. Al- 
though the project met with the approval of Mr. Oscar S. 
Straus, himself a Southerner, born in Georgia, who assisted in 
preparing a brief statement of the basis of the proposed ap- 
peal, a copy of which I have with Mr. Straus's own interlinea- 
tions, together with several letters which passed between 
him and the Chairman of the Faculty of the University, and 
also was favorably received by Mr. Schiff, Mr. Warley Plat- 
zer, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New 
York, a Southerner, born in North Carolina, and other 
prominent Jews, it was abandoned on account of the fact that 
there then existed a serious financial depression which forced 
the gentlemen mentioned to reach the conclusion that it would 
not be feasible to raise the necessary funds for the purpose at 
that time. 

You will excuse me, I am sure, for dwelling at such length 
and in such detail on this matter. I had not intended to do so 
and, in fact, had framed my address along other lines, but when 
I received the documents from Mr. Levy and recalled that 
Mr. Leo N. Levi's name is still fresh in the memory of this 
Southern community, and that you would doubtless remember 
him as one of your foremost citizens, and perhaps many of you 
were amongst his personal friends and co-workers, I decided that 
this history of the plan which he proposed and the efforts which 
he made on the part of the Jews of America in behalf of his 
Alma Mater because of the principle of truth, freedom and 
democracy which he had imbibed at that institution would prove 
more interesting to you than anything I myself might be able 
to present. I had intended to speak briefly of the achievements 
of the graduates of the University who were of the Jewish 
faith. Mr. Leo N. Levi perhaps was the most distinguished 
graduate of that faith who ever attended the University, al- 
though amongst the Jewish alumni are found the names of 
Felix H. Levy, to whom I have already referred, a Southerner, 
born in San Antonio, receiving his preparation for the Univer- 
sity at the then noted Bellevue School in Bedford County, Vir- 
ginia. He received his degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor 
of Law at the University in four years. Mr. Levy was a fra- 



The: Jewish Chautauqua Society 137 

ternity man, a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma Chapter. He 
was the first president of the General Athletic Association of 
the University and wrote the first constitution of that Associa- 
tion and organized it upon its present basis. You are familiar 
with his distinguished career as a lawyer and publicist. 

Other distinguished alumni are: Rab'bi Edward N. Calisch, 
who attended the University for three sessions, half time in ab- 
sentia, receiving his degree of M. A. in 1904 and Ph. D. in 1908. 
As his thesis he wrote that very valuable work "The Jew in 
English Literature," opening up a rich field of study which 
hitherto had been practically unexplored. Dr. Calisch was ora- 
tor of the Class of 1908 at the 1913 reunion and delivered the 
Phi Beta Kappa address in 1915. In May of this year his 
congregation celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his min- 
istry in Richmond and he is regarded by Jew and Gentile alike 
one of Richmond's foremost citizens. Leon M. Nelson, a prom- 
inent attorney of Richmond, Virginia, and his brother, Roscoe 
Conkling Nelson, a prominent attorney of Portland, Orgon, 
who, while a student at the University prepared a history of the 
Jewish Alumni, which appeared in the "Jewish South" pub- 
lished in Richmond, Virginia, but unfortunately a copy was not 
accessible to me in preparing this paper. Maurice Hirsch, a 
brilliant and promising young lawyer of Houston, Texas, who 
was a member of the Raven Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and Delta 
Sigma Rho; President of Washington Society, and winner of 
the Orator's medal. He participated in three inter-collegiate 
debates against Johns Hopkins, North Carolina and Tulane and 
won by a unanimous decision in each debate. Louis Baum, 
an eminent civil engineer, now manager of the Kansas City of- 
fice of the Trussed Concrete Steel Company. A. Leo Weil, 
distinguished lawyer and "publicist, who, too, was an active mem- 
ber at the Washington Literary Society, being intermediate 
President for two years; and several years ago, by invitation, 
returning to deliver the annual Washington Birthday Address. 
There are many others, but I cannot for lack of time prolong 
the list. 

There is another reason why I recount this history in detail, 
and that is that I had definitely decided to make two construe- 



138 The; Jewish Chautauqua Society 

tive suggestions to you at the risk of appearing indelicate enough 
to come before you as an advocate displaying institutional self- 
ishness, asking favors rather than using the opportunity 
courteously extended to me for a more academic discussion of 
the principles and aims of your Society. After mature con- 
sideration, however, I, myself, am convinced, and my opinion is 
reenforced by the favor with which the suggestion has been 
received by a number of prominent Jews to whom I have writ- 
ten, that your ends would probably be met most effectively 
through the adoption of the suggestion I shall make than in 
any other manner. If I have read your proceedings aright, 
trained leadership is what you most need. This is obtained only 
through the higher education ; not that all Jews who might 
attend the University would adopt Chautauqua work as a pro- 
fession, but they would at least catch a vision of its possibil- 
ities, become missionaries in the cause and, being filled with 
the spirit of the movement, would lend the weight of 
their influence to its wider organization and development. 'The 
suggestions which I intended to make were : 

First, That your Society encourage some chapter of the In- 
dependent Order of B'nai, B'rith, or some philanthropist, to do- 
nate to the University of Virginia and other universities, fol- 
lowing the example of Champaign and Urbanna Lodges of Illi- 
nois, the sum of $50.00 annually to be awarded in prizes to 
students of the University for essays on Jewish subjects. 

Second, That you consider the wisdom and feasibility of es- 
tablishing at the University of Virginia a foundation for the 
maintenance of a Chair of Semitics wherein Hebrew and Jew- 
ish History and Literature may be taught, on somewhat the 
same plan as that of the John B. Cary Memorial School of 
Biblical History and Literature which was established some 
years ago by one of our Protestant denominations. 

Jefferson, as you know, was opposed to formal religious teach- 
ing in the University. In a letter to Dr. Cooper he wrote, "In 
our University, you know, there is no professorship of divin- 
ity." But he thought that students of every sect should have 
access to the teachings of their respective organizations and sug- 



The Jewish Chautauqua Society 139 

gested that all sects be encouraged to establish on the Univer- 
sity confines professorships of their own tenets ; preserving, 
however, their independence of the University and of each 
other. He had no desire to exclude religion from any academic 
community but simply to introduce religious liberty. 

In the minutes of the Board of Visitors, held Oct. 7, 1822, 
the following record is made: "In conformity with principles of 
the Constitution, which places all sects of religion on an equal 
footing, * * * they had not proposed that any professor of 
divinity should be appointed in the University ; that provi- 
sion however, was made for giving instruction in the Hebrew, 
Greek and Latin languages, the depositaries of the originals, and 
of the earliest and most respected authorities of the faith of 
every sect, and for courses of Ethical lectures, developing those 
moral obligations in which all sects agiee. That, proceeding 
thus far, they had left at this point to every sect to take into 
their own hands the office of further instruction in the pecu- 
liar tenets of each. 

"It was not, however, to be understood that instruction in re- 
ligious opinion and duties was meant to be precluded by the 
public authorities, as indifferent to the interests of society. On 
the contrary, the relations which exist between man and his 
Maker, and the duties resulting from those relations, are the 
most interesting and important to every human being, and the 
most incumbent on his study and investigation." 

I am prompted also, because in October, 1919 it has been defi- 
nitely decided to celebrate the centennial aniversary of the found- 
ing of the University, with exercises which will be international 
in character, to present to you the suggestion which has been 
made to me in a letter quite recently received from Hon. Felix 
H. Levy as follows : "Permit me to offer the suggestion that if 
you conclude to use these papers in your address it may be that 
a suggestion originating either from you, or from your au- 
dience, will be in order, to the effect that the effort which in 
1896 proved abortive might now, in the more prosperous con- 
dition of this country, be renewed and that an effort be made 
now by the Jews of America to raise a suitable fund for pre- 



140 The Jewish Chautauqua Society 

sentation to the University upon the basis and for the purposes 
suggested two decades ago by Mr. Leo N. Levi." 

It would be indelicate in me to press the suggestion. I al- 
ready feel some embarrassment in directing your attention to it. 
I simply leave it with you for your thoughtful consideration 
knowing that you will be moved to act upon it or not if, in your 
judgment, there is wisdom or unwisdom in it, and if it is in 
accord with your principles and would further your aims. 



SU F> F^IL^BM ENT 



A MEMORIAL TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, FOR THE UNI- 
VERSITY OF VIRGINIA, FROM THE JEWS 
OF THE UNITED STATES.* 



The recent destruction by fire of the chief buildings of the 
University of Virginia has suggested itself to the undersigned as 
presenting an occasion singularly appropriate for the exercise by 
the Jews of America of the philanthropy which has ever distin- 
guished them. 

The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 by Thomas 
Jefferson and was to him the favorite offspring of his genius. 
With such pride did he view his creation that he regarded it, to- 
gether with his authorship of the Declaration of Independence 
and of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, as the proudest 
accomplishment of his career, and directed that the epitaph on his 
tombstone should recite these three achievements as those .alone 
upon which his fame with posterity should rest. 

For more than three-quarters of a century the University of 
Virginia has stood in the forefront of educational institutions in 
this Country ; and in the South has been preeminently the leader. 
The buildings which have been destroyed were designed by 
Thomas Jefferson himself and were directed under his personal 
supervision. 

A movement is now under way among prominent men at the 
North and elsewhere to raise the necessary funds to restore 
these buildings. In connection with this movement it has been 
proposed that the Jews of America unite to raise a separate fund 
to be presented to the University of Virginia for some designated 
purpose, which shall constitute a memorial to Thomas Jefferson. 
We believe that by this tribute to the memory of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, who with Washington and Lincoln constitute the pillars of 
our American commonwealth, we can most fittingly testify our 



*Final draft prepared by Felix H. Levy in 1895. 



142 The; Jewish Chautauqua Society 

loyalty to American traditions and at the same time our appre- 
ciation of the beneficial results which have flowed from Thomas 
Jefferson's exertions as an exponent of the doctrine of Religious 
Freedom. 

The plan suggested is to raise a fund of $25,000.00 to be used 
in the erection of a building for the Law Department of the 
University of Virginia, and that this building shall be designated 
"A Memorial to Thomas Jefferson — For the University of Vir- 
ginia — From the Jews of the United States." 

New York, January 15, 1896. 



A MEMORIAL TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, FOR THE UNI- 
VERSITY OF VIRGINIA, FROM THE JEWS 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 



On October 26th, 1895, the Rotunda and Public Hall of the 
University of Virginia were destroyed by fire. The Rotunda 
was designed by Thomas Jefferson, after the Pantheon at Rome, 
and it was erected under his immediate personal supervision. 
Under his watchful eyes the materials were prepared and placed, 
and by his earnest and untiring efforts the necessary funds were 
procured to complete the Rotunda and the other structures of the 
University as by him designed and founded. 

Only those who will study the last years of Jefferson's life can 
fully appreciate how dear to him was this seat of learning, and 
how completely he devoted his time, fortune and talents to> its 
upbuilding. He foresaw the important part it would play in the 
development of the political principles born of his genius, and 
in the perpetuation of the liberties which his patriotic pen had 
inspired the Colonists to attain by the sword. 

The life of no American has been so full of great events for 
these United States as that of Thomas Jefferson, and no one bet- 
ter understood that fact than he. When, near its close, he came 
to review his achievements and to contemplate the place that 
would be assigned to him in History, he prepared his own epi- 
taph, and rested his fame forever upon the facts therein stated. 



The; Jewish Chautauqua Society 143 

From the burning walls of the Rotunda was borne by brave 
students Gait's statue of Jefferson. It bears on its pedestal the 
words inscribed by his own direction upon the tomb of America's 
profoundest statesman — 

Thomas Jefferson 

Author of 

The Declaration of American Independence; 

Of the Statute of Virginia for 

Religious Freedom ; 

And 

Father of the University of Virginia. 

Born 

April 2nd 1743, O. S. 

Died 

July 4th, 1826. 

That tomb is located on the summit of Monticello, overlook- 
ing and but four miles distant from the University, which was 
the child of his mature thought and most unselfish efforts. 

The epitaph above copied shows that Jefferson correctly ap- 
preciated his highest contributions to the well being of his coun- 
try. By the Declaration of Independence he established the 
principle of Political Liberty; by the Statute for Religious Free- 
dom he established by law the principle of Religious Liberty ; 
by founding the University of Virginia he established the then 
contested, but now well recognized, principle of Educational Lib- 
erty. 

It would be a work of supererogation to more than mention 
the Declaration of Independence, as the sheet anchor of polit- 
ical liberty and equality. On each recurring birthday of Amer- 
ican Freedom, it is read to listening thousands, whose patriotic 
and answering heart-beats attest the fervor with which all Amer- 
icans will support its truths with "their lives, their fortunes and 
their sacred honor." 

The Statute of Virginia for Religious Liberty is not so well 
known. 

From the beginning to the end of the American struggle for 



144 The Jewish Chautauqua Society 

liberty the Colonists looked to Virginia for leadership and gui- 
dance, and such men as George Mason, Edmund Randolph, Pat- 
rick Henry, Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson, bravely assumed 
the weighty responsibility. On May 15th, 1776, the Virginia 
Convention directed her delegates in the Continental Congress, 
to move Independence, and on the same day appointed the Com- 
mittee which on June 12th, 1776, presented the world-famous 
Virginia declaration of rights. This paper was written by George 
Mason, his work being especially aided -by Patrick Henry and 
James Madison. In this declaration, as in the declaration of 
July 4th, 1776, by Congress, the principle of Religious Liberty 
was announced as axiomatic. Mr. Jefferson was of the opin- 
ion, however, as is shown in the 17th Chapter of his "Notes," 
that the declaration of June 12th, 1776, and the Virginia acts of 
October, 1776, repealing all Parliamentary provisions relating 
to Religion, left the Common Law penalties for heresy still in 
force. To set the matter finally at rest, Mr. Jefferson prepared, 
and in the beginning of the year .1786, had passed by the Vir- 
ginia Assembly, "An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom." 
The preamble has no superior for logic and eloquence, unless it 
is to be found in the legislative clause which reads as follows : 

"Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no 
man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious wor- 
ship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, re- 
strained, molested or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall 
otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; 
but that all men shall be free to profess and by argument to 
maintain, their opinions in matters of religion and that the same 
shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. 

"And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the 
people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no 
power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted 
with the power equal to our own, and that therefore to declare 
this act irrevocable, would be of no effect in law, yet we are free 
to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are 
of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be 
hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, 
such act will be an infringement of natural right." 

That Act not only remains in Virginia to this day, but follow- 
ing Virginia, all of the other states have enacted substantially 



The: Jewish Chautauqua Society 145 

the same provisions ; and in the first amendment to the Consti- 
tution of the United States, the principle was definitely and firmly 
fixed in the National Organic Law. 

Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to Joseph C. Cabell dated December 
18th, 1817, relative to the then proposed University of Virginia, 
wrote: "I have only this single anxiety in this world. It is a 
bantling of forty years birth and nursing, and if I can once see 
it on its legs, I will sing with sincerity and pleasure my nunc 
dimittis:' 

In a letter to the same gentleman dated January 14th, 1818, 
he says : "A system of general instruction which shall reach 
every description of our citizens, from the richest to the poorest, 
as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest of all the public 
concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest." 

His unflagging efforts to found and maintain the University 
bore their first imperfect fruit when the Virginia Assembly on 
February 21st, 1818, appropriated $15,000.00 per annum to that 
end and appointed a commission to determine the site, plan and 
administrative methods thereof. On August 3rd, 1818, this com- 
mission met at Rockfish Gap. Among those present as members, 
were the then President of the United States, Mr. Monroe, and 
two of his most illustrious predecessors, Thomas Jefferson and 
James Madison. Jefferson had previously prepared an elaborate 
report for the Commission, which with few amendments, was 
adopted. 

Perhaps the most notable feature of the report was his pro- 
posal "to place the entire responsibility for religious training 
upon an ethical basis, where all sects could agree." He was of 
opinion that each sect should in separate schools provide theo- 
logical teaching and that theological, like other studies, should 
be absolutely elective. This idea aroused a storm of opposition, 
and for many years he was charged with having established a 
school of Atheism. In a letter to Dr. Cooper dated November 
2nd, 1822, Jefferson writes : "In our University, you know, there 
is no professorship of divinity. A handle has been made of this 
to disseminate an idea that this is an institution, not merely of 
no religion, but against all religion." 

Despite all opposition, Jefferson persisted in his plan to keep 



146 The Jewish Chautauqua Society 

religion out of the University proper, at the same time encour- 
aging all sects to establish on the University confines "professor- 
ships of their own tenets * * * preserving however, their 
independence of us and of each other." His ideas were at the 
time regarded as fanciful, and it is almost certain that only the 
prestige of his great name could have made them prevail. They 
did prevail, however, in a modified form and in one form or 
another, have been adopted by nearly all the leading American 
Universities. 

Says Professor Herbert B. Adams : "The idea of religious 
freedom is working itself out in university life, as it has already 
in the Church and in the State. The exclusion of religion is not 
desired by any academic community. The introduction of re- 
ligious liberty is what we need. That is the idea which Jefferson 
attempted to realize amid great calumny and misinterpretation. 
And he, of all men, really solved the problem in the State of Vir- 
ginia by his statute for religious liberty, and prepared the way 
for its solution in all university education." 

The University of Virginia was regarded by Jefferson, as in- 
deed it was, as the crowning work of his life. It was and' is 
the enduring and eloquent monument to his patriotism and gen- 
ius. Beneath the dome he designed and constructed, were placed 
his books annotated by his own hand and forming a priceless 
treasure for the student. Around it clusters all the traditions 
of his private life. Within its shelters the descendants of his 
blood have received their culture, and the flower of Southern 
youth have drunk at the fountains of Knowledge and Wisdom. 

When the historic pile fell a prey to the flames, a cry of an- 
guish went up from those who knew and loved it ; and what is 
more, knew and loved what it stood for. 

Unhappily, the insurance carried on the property destroyed 
bore no adequate ratio to the sum necessary for its restoration. 
Moreover, while the unanimous sentiment is that the Rotunda 
shall be reproduced on exactly the lines drawn by Jefferson, it 
is found necessary to supplement it with other buildings com- 
mensurate with the development of the University. To accom- 
plish such results, subscriptions have been and are being solicited 
to a Restoration Fund. The appeal has been addressed to the 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 643 104 4 



